Skelmersdale United await the winners of the Penrith v Dunston replay. Skem have strong links with Jocko-Land - including Ian St John as former coach!

As regular readers will know, the unique feature of this particular season long journey to the FA Cup Final is that it is ‘The Road to Wembley from Scotland’. Hence for every match I am looking for Scottish links to the teams involved. On Wednesday I need to go to the Preliminary Round replay between Penrith and Dunston UTS but waiting in the wings are Skelmersdale United. The winners on Wednesday will play host to the men from West Lancashire on Saturday September the 3^rd and I will be there. Hence, in advance of the tie I have been in touch with Skem, as they are popularly known, to hopefully flush out some Scottish connections. The programme editor Kev Panther (whose own grandfather was from Tayside incidentally) has kindly provided me with loads of material and some of it is gold dust. Take a bow Doug Coutts, Graham and Gaz Burnett and Ian St John – yes the Ian St John.

Doug Coutts is an Aberdonian who as a youngster in the early sixties played for his home town team with distinction.

Doug Coutts of the Dons

A cultured centre half, Doug made 121 appearances for Aberdeen Between 1960 and 1965 scoring 4 goals. I can’t really work out why the Dons were playing a friendly against Blackpool in January 1961 but the match programme described Doug as “fast and strong and very cool for one so young. A part-timer who works for the Inland Revenue”. Doug never did go full time and his next four teams were all part-time outfits. He played for Berwick Rangers from 1965 to 1969 before settling in Lancashire.

In 1969 he signed for Wigan Athletic who at that time were a non league team. Doug helped the Latics to win the Northern Premier League title in season 1970-71. 

Wigan Athletic 1970-71: Doug Coutts is front row extreme left

After three seasons with Wigan Doug played for Altrincham for a year before he signed for Skelmersdale United in 1973. In the twilight of a distinguished career, Doug served Skem with solid performances and is fondly remembered for his contribution.

In more recent times Skem have benefited from the goalscoring performances from Garry Burnett. Garry (or Gaz as he prefers to be known) is one of Skem’s favourite sons and scored a barrowload of goals for them before he was transferred to Colwyn Bay in February 2012.

Gaz Burnett now with Colwyn Bay

Gaz is still banging in the goals and as recently as last Saturday scored the winning goal in an FA Cup tie as Colwyn Bay progressed in the world’s greatest football competition with a 1-0 away win at Shaw Lane. Garry’s father is a proud Scot so as far as I am concerned that makes him a 100% Jock. Certainly he is qualified to play for Scotland and indeed he has. He was with the Wigan Athletic Academy as a schoolboy and while with the Latics was capped for Scotland at u-15 level. His dad Graham Burnett was also a more than useful footballer. In the 1980s he played in the same Motherwell youth and reserve teams as Gary McAllister and went on to have two trials for Rangers but was not signed up. Graham then went on to play for a decade in Junior football playing for both Lanark United and Forth Wanderers. The only downside to the Burnett family story is that both Gaz and Graham are lifelong Rangers supporters … boo!

Ian St John is a Scottish football icon and also a man who has scored a winning goal in an FA Cup Final. In the mid sixties he had a strong connection with Skelmersdale United because even though he was at the height of his powers with Liverpool and Scotland he still found time to coach the Skem boys. With the help of his tutelage Skelmersdale United reached the FA Amateur Cup Final in 1967. This season is the 50^th Anniversary of that achievement.

The Skem players benefit from Ian St John's wisdon

St John shows the Skem lads how it is done!

My own early memories of Ian St John are from the FA Cup Final of 1965 between Liverpool and Leeds United. In an era when the only live football on TV was the FA Cup Final, the match at Wembley in May 1965 made a big impression on the 7 year old Chris Donkin. There is some amazing colour Pathe News footage of this match available from YouTube via this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u59t5QpcoMk

Some of the ‘tackling’ in this match has to be seen to be believed. The match finished 0-0 and so extra time was played. After Roger Hunt of Liverpool and Billy Bremner of Leeds exchanged goals the match seemed to be heading for a replay and then Ian St John scored THAT goal. I was amazed when St John scored the winner. A cross from the right was played in four feet behind him. He somehow managed to arch backwards and contort his neck muscles to head the ball goalward and into the net. I got a football annual that summer and the picture shown below was featured and I just stared and stared at what my Dad called a jack-knife header and wondered how did he do that?

St John scores the winning goal in the 1965 FA Cup Final with a jack-knife header

 Years later Ian St John recounted his memories of that final: “I can remember the game as if it was played the day before yesterday. How we failed to wrap the game up in the first 90 minutes remains a mystery to me. It would have been a travesty if we had left Wembley without a victory over a Leeds side that was exceptionally skilful but nasty too. Some of their tackling would have landed their players in the Tower in today’s sanitised game when you cannot breathe on opponents without getting booked. My unorthodox headed goal that won the match was the most satisfying of my career. Hardly a day goes by without somebody reminding me of it”.

Thanks again to Kev Panther of Skelmersdale United for providing most of the information in this post. The connection between Skem and Bella Caledonia is strong. Perhaps they should be renamed Skelmersdale Thistle!